home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=89TT2445>
- <title>
- Sep. 18, 1989: Grapevine
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Sep. 18, 1989 Torching The Amazon
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 34
- Grapevine
- </hdr><body>
- <p> SAVE THE DATE. The California town of Yorba Linda (pop.
- 50,000) has few claims to fame. But it is the birthplace of
- Richard Nixon, and this month its city council is expected to
- declare the former President's birthday a local holiday,
- effective Jan. 9, 1990. Explains Yorba Linda city councilman
- Gene Wisner: "He got into a lot of hot water over Watergate, but
- he stood by his staff when he could have cleared himself and let
- them deal with the problem." The councilman might try telling
- that to H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and John Dean, all of
- whom were, in effect, fired by Nixon, and went to prison, while
- their boss enjoyed a pardon.
- </p>
- <p> WRIGHT TO LIFE. In 1972 Jim Wright turned down the
- presidency of the American Income Life Insurance Co. of Waco,
- Texas, run by his pal, Democratic fund raiser Bernard Rapoport.
- No longer Speaker of the House, Wright has accepted Rapoport's
- latest offer: making pep talks to the company's salesmen and
- clients for a salary described by his new boss as "so little I'm
- afraid to announce it." While shopping for a new Fort Worth
- home, Wright and wife Betty are living in a condo bought from
- developer George Mallick, whose ties to the Speaker were
- criticized by the House ethics committee.
- </p>
- <p> TOUGHER THAN AILES. Roger Ailes, the pugnacious media guru
- who draped George Bush in the Stars and Stripes and helped hang
- Willie Horton around Michael Dukakis' neck, may have met his
- match in this week's New York City mayoral primary. Ailes fled
- the campaign of cosmetic magnate Ronald Lauder and later advised
- his rival, former U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani. But Lauder's
- adman, Arthur Finkelstein, has stung the prosecutor with TV
- spots depicting him as a big spender who is weak on the death
- penalty and who even condones anti-Semitism. Crying foul, Ailes
- and Giuliani called the ads a "shameful pack of lies."
- </p>
- <p> WHY IS THIS MAN SMILING? Ailes also found time last week to
- advise George Bush on his first TV address from the Oval
- Office. But after a faintly smiling Bush cited the number of
- babies born with a drug addiction and other grim statistics,
- Ailes asked other officials watching at the White House, "What's
- with the grin?" The explanation from aides: Bush is emotional,
- hates to show it and overcompensates by lightening his
- expression too much. Sighed one senior official: "Whenever he
- tries to talk about something really serious, he gets this grin
- on his face."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-